We plan to investigate the chemical and physical chemical properties of proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans in cartilage of patients with skeletal growth disorders such as Morquio's disease, spondyloepiphyseal dysplasias, multiple epiphyseal dysplasias, achondroplasia, pseudoachondroplasia, idiopathic scoliosis, Marfan's disease, etc. Mostly iliac crest cartilage biopsies, easily obtainable without harm to the patients, will be used in the studies. Intervertebral disc samples will be obtained at surgery in scoliotic patients and at autopsy in skeletally normal individuals. We will also study these tissues histologically and with the electron microscope. We plan to study the properties of collagen from cartilage and from intervertebral disc and to investigate in vitro proteoglycans-collagen interactions. These studies will be performed with proteoglycans and collagen obtained from tissues of normal and of deformed individuals to learn how changes in the properties of the two major components of connective tissue may be related to the pathogenesis of skeletal defects. We will further investigate the possible existence of a covalent link between a proteoglycan fraction and collagen. For this purpose we will study the composition and properties of the CNBr solubilized proteoglycans obtained from costal cartilage and intervertebral disc after extraction of the soluble proteoglycan fraction with dissociative solvents.